Sunday, April 10, 2016

Khawas Khan, a Marwat or house-born slave of Sher Shah Suri?

"According to Khursheed-i-Jahan, Malik
Mehr Khan was the Malik and Khan of the Marwats at the time when the
Tehsil of Lakki was under their control. He was descendant of Behram kor
of the Marwat clan. Allah Dad Khan and Jabbar Khan of Achu Khel
clan, Mina Khan of Sikander Khel clan, Gulan Khan of Tittar Khel and
Qatal Khan of Musa Khel clan were Maliks of the 2nd grade. Mehr Khan's father , Khawas Khan Lohani (born in 1515), was a senior minister (Field Marshal) in the court of Sher Shah who
granted him the title of Amirul-Umara. His real name was Sahib Khan.
Due to his gallantry, bravery, and courageous disposition , he earned
the name of Khawas Khan....he was , however, killed by Sultan Islam
Shah due to some misunderstanding . He lies buried by the side of Lal
Darwesh of Delhi. Mehr Khan, then Khan of the Marwats, was son of this
great man....."

On page-27 he has :-

"Khawas
Khan s/o Umar Khan (the grandson of Behram Khan was the chief of the
Marwats from the Behram branch in the (at its) inception). He was one of the brave lieutenants of King Sher Shah Suri and rewarded with 1/10th of the lands of Suri dynasty. ....His real name was Sahib Khan. After his death , the chieftaincy of Marwats came down to his elder son Mehr Khan and
then to Noor Khan. The Marwat tribe which was virtually a nation at
this time , held allegiance to him. Jabu Khel, Khanzad Khel, Khairo
Khel, Midad Khel, Langar Khel, Aghzar Khel and Ghazi Khel -
collectively known as Mar Khan Khel, are the offshoots of his progeny. Unfortunately in 1702, when Sikander Khan became the Khan of Lakki town, one Sher Khan was Mehr Khan's brother and Salar Khan's son,
claimed to be Khan of Lakki....this rivalry was over the tribute or
Qalang of Lakki bazaar which rested with Sikander Khan s/o of Mehr Khan
and which Salar Khan s/o of Midad challenged.

The "Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi" ; a reputed work by Abbas Khan Sarwani on the Sur dyansty, has the following to say,

"Sher
Khan was not yet told (about his family) that news reached him that
Khawas Khan the senior had drowned in the moat around Gaur Fort and that
Emperor Humayun, after a peace agreement, had taken over the Chunar
fort. Thus shocked and perplexed , he (Sher Khan) sent the younger brother of Khawas Khan, named Sahib Khan, with the title of 'Khawas Khan'

The "Tawarikh-i-Khursheed Jahan" on page-107 has :-

"In
the meanwhile, news was reached that Khawas Khan had been drowned in
the moat of Gaur Fort, so he (Sher Khan) bestowed the title of Khawas Khan on his (own) brother, Sahib Khan and sent him towards Gaur fort."

A persual of the above mentioned statements reveal the followings :-

1-
Nowhere does "Tawarikh-i-Khursheed-i-Jahan" or for that matter any
other book on the subject mention Khawas Khan, the court noble of Sher
Shah, as a Marwat or father of Mehr Khan, the 'Khan' of Marwats. Malik
Mehr Khan is not reffered by any credible historian to have been a
"Khan" of the Marwats.

2- Sahib Khan was younger
brother of Khawas Khan senior and not of Sher Shah as given by
"Tawarikh-i-Khursheed Jahan". He was not a Marwat as quoted by Sher
Muhmmad Mohmand. B.Dorn mostly follows "Makhzan-i-Afghani" and is very
particular about writing the respective tribal names with each chief or a
petty leader of the Lodi and Sur dynasties. He neither makes a mention
of any tribal name with Khawas Khan nor of the title 'Khawas Khan' being
bestowed on his own (Sher Shah's) brother Sahib Khan. He merely writes
on page-108 of his book "History of the Afghans":

"Previous
to the arrival of the joyful news , sent by the latter (Raja of
Rohtas), Sher Khan had received intelligence from Gaur, of Khuvaz Khan's
being drowned in a ditch of that fort and of the conquest of Chunar by
the Mughals...He sent Sahib Khan, a brother of Khawas Khan, in the direction of the fort of Gour (Gaur)

3-
Khawas Khan was house born slave of Sher Shah , he was son of Sukka
Khan and not of Umar Khan Marwat. Ahmad Yadgar (courtier of Daud Khan
Karrani, ruler of Bengal, 1572-1576), while writing about the rift that
occurred between Azam Humayun Haibat Khan Niazi and Khawas Khan,
writes;-

"Khawas Khan asked one of the
nobles of Islam Shah, 'you convey my request to the King that i am a
slave of Sher Shah and because he had placed Adil Khan under my
supervision , i supported him" (see "Tarikh-i-Shahi" p-244)

Badoani writes,

"The
rank of vazir and Vakil was bestowed upon one Shamsher Khan, a slave
who was the younger brother of Khawas Khan and
.....(Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, Vol-I, p-537)

Abbas Khan Sarwani writes:-

"The
moment Sher Khan recieved this information, he wrote a note to his
slave , named Sukka, the father of Khawas Khan who was in charge of
Tanda, which is loacted near Benaras. (Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi, p-51)

According to Tarikh-i-Khan Jahni, p-272,

"Sukka named slave, the father of Khawas Khan, was in charge of (Khawaspur) Tanda"

4-
According to Sher Muhammad Mohmand , the so called Khawas Khan Marwat
was born in 1515 AD. His son Mehr Khan should have been born about
1540-45 (about 25-30 years after his father). Mehr Khan contemporaries ,
whom the author mentions as 2nd grade Maliks, lived in 18th century.
There is a difference of two centuries ! How could Mehr Khan live for so
long?

Book Reference:

" History of the Pathans" by Haroon Rashid, Volume III, pp-427-431, with edits